Trump's real program: not deporting immigrants, but keeping them 'illegal'

This may sound like an insane thing to say after a couple of weeks when Trump has promoted every anti-immigrant idea that self-hater Stephen Miller has been able to come up with, from overthrowing the most important amendment to the constitution in 200 years to ordering 15,000 troops to the border and telling them to feel free to open fire on unarmed civilians.

But President Trump's real, on-the-ground policy on "illegals" is exactly the same as every other president going back decades: not to get rid of the undocumented, but to keep them "illegal," bereft of rights so they can't defend themselves and can be easily ripped off and super-exploited.

Just look at it, as it plays out in real life: how many "illegals" were there before Obama was elected? More than eleven million. 

And how many were there when he left office, after the Great Recession and three million deportations? More than eleven million.

And how many are there now after two years of "Build the Wall" chanting and Trump's rule? More than eleven million.

And if you think that's going to change, do the math. If you leave aside those caught near the border shortly after crossing, how many people were deported each year under Obama, from the settled undocumented population inside the country?

Give or take, a quarter million a year. And how many are being deported now? Give or take, a quarter million.

So how long would it take to "solve" the problem by deporting all the undocumented? Forty-four years, give or take. And, mind you, that's assuming the government's figure of just over 11 million is right.

Because professors from MIT and Yale, utilizing "standard demographic principles" just published a study saying by the most conservative yardstick, the real number is almost 17 million, but with standard methodology, the number is 22 million, double the official estimate. If that's so, you'd need to be pretty unlucky to get deported before you died.

So has anything changed with Trump? Yes, most of all the rhetoric. Though we should remember Trump is not that unusual as a politician trying to whip up anti-immigrant sentiment. But his deportation policies have been more cruel and arbitrary than Obama's in order to spread fear throughout the entire immigrant community. As were Clinton's in relation to his predecessors.

But as for the rest of it, the real policy has been essentially the same for many decades: not to throw out the "illegals," but make sure that if they stay here, they stay "illegal," meaning super-exploitable and thus super-profitable for the bosses.

--José G. Pérez